February 23, 2010

Luck is the 10th and final album from the late American guitarist who recently died of an apparent heart attack.

Rose was 38 when he died in December. He was working on Luck at the time of his death, continuing his work on ragtime guitar.

Luck was recorded live with no overdubs, taking pre-war classics and recording them in his own arrangements during a nine-month period in 2009.

If I Were Really Rich ...
• Johnny Cash, American VI: Ain't No Grave (Lost Highway) | Also a posthumous release from the Man in Black, continuing his "American" series with material that was not issued on 2006's American V.

February 17, 2010

Classically trained cellist Ben Sollee and singer/guitarist Daniel Martin Moore  each with solo efforts to their credit  team up for the first time with this effort for Sub Pop.

That last part is immediately what caught my eye. Sub Pop may have cut its teeth on the "Seattle Scene" in the 1990s, but in the last five to 10 years, it's taken a left turn into indie rock. Goodbye Nirvana; hello Shins.

Sollee, part of Abigail Washburn's Chinese folk/bluegrass hybrid experiment Sparrow Quartet, teams with Moore, a Peace Corps alum. They drew inspiration from their shared dislike for  what else?  mountaintop coal removal, an issue personal to them in their homes in the Central Appalachia.

The record, the duo's first for Sub Pop, is produced by My Morning Jacket lead vocalist/guitarist Jim James.

February 10, 2010

A curious example from the recent 52nd annual Grammy Awards raised an interesting point about possession.

I've always been the type who has to have something, to hold it and feel it and know it's really there  I touch, therefore, I am, you might say.

After buying the video from iTunes of Dave Matthews Band playing "You & Me" with about 45 people during the awards show broadcast (seen at right), a dumbfounded friend asked, "Dude, why would you pay for a video you can watch on YouTube?" he asked.

I crooked an eyebrow and opened my mouth to respond, but no words escaped.

He had a pretty good point.

Not only that, but his comment made me think deeper about the Internet and how it has reshaped the concept of possession.

As the "You & Me" example proves, YouTube has greatly diminished the need to download a video to your desktop. The site has the clips sitting there waiting when you're ready to watch them. You "own" them by saving them in your favorites or typing them in the search bar.

As a touchy/feely, "pics or it didn't happen"-type person, this concept is foreign to me. I have 33 videos on my favorites list, mostly clips from concerts I've seen, although there is the music video for Blur's "Coffee and TV" with the anthropomorphic milk carton known as Milky, too.

Netflix, Hulu and iTunes have eliminated the need to own many shows or movies. There are some movies on my "List of Movies I Want to Own" that I keep in my wallet that I haven't bought because I think, "Oh. I can just watch that on Netflix Instant."

But I feel like a dinosaur and the asteroid has hit. As anyone who gets their paycheck directly deposited into their bank account can tell you, it's about access rather than possession.

I know I'm from the Jurassic period because I do have that craving to have something I can see, feel and examine.

It's even part of why — gasp — why I work at a newspaper.

Increasingly, people don't care how they get their news, whether it's from a computer screen or a piece of paper. They just care that they get it.

Apple is counting on this being true after recently unveiling the iPad. We've all heard the jokes, but if future generations of that baby improve on the concept and functionality, it'll be Apple who gets the last laugh.

For me, it always comes back to newspapers or music. In terms of music, I can see it all as a progression of convenience: A person thinks, "Why carry around crates of records when you can have a booklet of CDs" which became "why have a 500-CD changer if they'll all fit on your computer?"

I understand all that.

But my need to be hands-on is a big reason why I still collect records. My music collection lives on bookshelves, not on a laptop. Thumbing through the album covers on iTunes is so foreign and impersonal to me. Yes, I have the albums, but not in any way that has any texture or dimension.

I like big gatefold art. I love to read the lyrics and examine the liner notes when I put my headphones on and listen. I'm trying to get with the times, but some part of me will always see possession as touch and feel rather than access.

It's why I do things like spend $1.99 on a video I could watch for free on YouTube.

I'm sure, though, within a few generations, dinosaurs like me will do what they did before — become extinct.

February 09, 2010

Probably not the most noteworthy release this week, but anyone who reads this blog knows I'd be lying if I didn't say this is exactly what I'd buy.

Factor in that I was actually at this show and it's unquestioned. The third and final show of a three-night stint in Sin City in December 2009, it also marks the third live album from the Matthews/Reynolds acoustic duo.

As always, Reynolds takes his requisite solo performances, one of which is a spellbinding instrumental rendition of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir." The two-disc set also marks the first Dave & Tim release of six songs from 2009's Grammy-nominated Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King.

About Nick DeCicco

Music, music, musicNick DeCicco writes For Those About to Rock, a music blog for the Daily Republic. After trying and failing to play multiple instruments, Nick realized he should combine his love of words and music and use it to mock those who can play much, much better than him. And he does. He's attended hundreds of concerts, has a CD collection numbering into the thousands, crossed the Atlantic to see shows, and is a two-time record store employee. He lives in Solano County, with his two iPods and two CD players.

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